Minnie Driver is shocked by American television

Minnie Driver, the star of The Riches, says television executives would appear on set and ask for her shirt to be unbuttoned.

Minnie Driver was disillusioned with television after The Riches was axed.Photo: REX

Tim Walker. Edited by Richard Eden.

6:28AM BST 27 Jul 2010

American television dramas such as Mad Men and The Sopranos are often held up as exemplars for British programme makers.

However, Minnie Driver is so disillusioned that The Riches, the acclaimed series in which she starred opposite Eddie Izzard, has been axed that she declares: "I didn't want to do television ever again. It was shocking the way in which it was dealt with."

The star of Good Will Hunting, 40, compares television executives to officials “working for a Japanese conglomerate that has nothing to do with anything creative”.

She claims that representatives from FX, which made The Riches, would make comments on set such as “unbutton two more buttons on her shirt, so we can see more boob”.

She adds in the Radio Times that television "is much more micro-managed in the US."

Elizabeth Hurley will add some glamour to Glorious Goodwood on Tuesday, but her husband, the Indian businessman Arun Nayar, will be conspicuous by his absence.

"Elizabeth will attend with Shane Warne," says a friend of the 45-year-old model, actress and businesswoman.

The flamboyant Australian cricketer, 40, is an old chum of Hurley, who spent Monday night on the Earl of March's Goodwood estate in West Sussex, where the race meeting starts on Tuesday.

Hurley recently became involved in racehorse ownership with Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, which is fronted by Harry Herbert, the brother of the Earl of Carnarvon. Highclere has two runners on Tuesday, but, sadly, neither of them is Hurley's.

Grant Shapps makes cuts to impress David Cameron

As a devoted “Cameroon”, Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister, was keen to impress the Prime Minister by cutting costs in his private office.

When one of his five members of staff left, Shapps made clear to senior civil servants that the individual should not be replaced. “The problem was that no one would listen to him,” says my man in Whitehall. “Shapps was told in no uncertain terms that he needed all five staff and should think again.”

However, with a determination that should single him out as a future chief secretary to the Treasury, Shapps prevailed over Sir Humphrey and he will now manage with four.